Bless 'Em All

"Bless 'Em All"
Song by George Formby, Jr.
Written	1917
Writer(s)	Fred Godfrey, Robert Kewley

"Bless 'Em All" (also known as "The Long And The Short And The Tall" and "Fuck 'Em All") is a war song the words credited to have been written by Fred Godfrey in 1917 to a musical score written by Robert Kewley and first recorded by George Formby, Jr. in 1940.

Godfrey claimed to have thought up the lyrics for the song while serving with the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) at Dunkirk during the First World War, recalling in a 1941 letter to the Daily Mirror: "I wrote “Bless ’Em All” while serving in the old RNAS in France in 1916. And, furthermore, it wasn’t "Bless.'" Although the song is credited to him, it is unclear if he actually wrote the lyrics, and his service record indicates that he joined RNAS January 1917. Les Cleveland (1984) writes that a version of the song titled Fuck 'Em All was a popular protest song by airmen serving on India's North West Frontier during the 1920s, and may have originated from there. It later gained popularity among British and Commonwealth troops during the Second World War, and with a change of lyrics became a patriotic tune after being performed by singers such as Gracie Fields and Vera Lynn. It was also recorded by George Formby and others. Ward Brown noted that "(...) The line You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean seems to reflect the point of view of soldiers about to be sent to a fighting front on the other side of an ocean - presumably the Atlantic. This would point to an American origin for the song, rather than a British one, though there is no clear evidence for such an origin". However the 'ocean' referred to, given a British-Indian origin, is much more likely the Indian Ocean - although the English Channel would do just as well for the purposes of the song.

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